1/30/2010

Pokerstars WBCOOP Event #5, 8 game mix....

It was just one of those nights at the virtual felt last night. I may have had a little fun along the way, but the damn cards were as frustrating as Hell. I had some pretty big hopes going into the mixed games last night, hoping that my familiarity with the variety of games being played would give me a tiny bit of an edge.

But to call myself card dead last night, would not quite do justice to how awfully bad I was really running.

The game started out with a bizarre twist. I had a friend sitting at the table with me, in the form of SmBoatDrinks. There was only one other player actually sitting with us, as the trend of registered players not showing up continued in full on effect. SBD busted our third player fairly early on with what else, a boat! Noice. Then we went on a really, REALLY sick run of hands. I think we went three wins in a row for SBD and then, three in a row for me. Back and forth, back and forth we went. It truly was an epic battle. All the while as we fought on, we were eating up the blinds and antes from the players that were sitting out. I managed to grow the stack into just more than double in the first hour. With SBD getting the far better of the deal, leaving our table with nearly a 4x growth in chips.

I continued to get premium starters with the 3 of us still at the table. Then I'd get into it in one of the games and come out a loser if I stayed in and of course, a huge winner if I folded. Bricks continually hit my RAZZ and STUD starters and if I folded the crap like 9-Q off,

I'd see a flop like this and a pair of Kings take down the huge pot.

When our table busted up, I was moved to the perfect crap position of course. Naturally the 3 to my right were all sitting out, but the two to my left were actually at the table. They had free run of the blinds and antes, while I had to make it through them to get to a pot. PERFECT!

I made it to my third table with a stack that was anything but spectacular. After it folded around to my SB, I went for the steal with a raise. I was met with the chat of, "I thought we were buds." Then a re-raise. Now I'm drinking, not particularly enjoying the game as it has played out for me and my, "bud" is re-raising my bet. I do what comes natural to me when I'm feeling miserable, I jammed with my crap.

Now I know what that feels like from the other side of things! Sorry "bud."

As a partial idea of how bad things were running for me, here's a sample RAZZ starting hand.

And then of course, here's a sample STUD starting hand.

I could throw up dozens and dozens of caps like those to be honest, prompting me during the game to complain about all the "feet" I was getting in place of hands.

That is a part of the game though so I'm sure that you can imagine the stealing, bluffing and moves I had to make, just to maintain some sort of a stack. For the most part, my timing was bang on the mark.

I did do well all night in 2-7 triple draw though, as it seemed my assumption that others knowledge of the game would be pretty weak, was quite correct. I saw several Ace high wins that totally shocked the crap out of me. Even my "bud" took one of those down as a matter of fact.

Now 2-7 for those that don't play the game, is based on 2,3,4,5,7 being the mortal nuts at the end. Straights play, flushes play and Aces play as high cards. The hand also plays out in three draws and three betting rounds, where you can really catch some of the drawing players at their best. In other words, the worst hand you can possibly imagine is true gold. As an example,

I stood pat after drawing one card to start this hand out. I believe a lot of players will draw themselves to death, hoping to catch the absolute nut hand for the win. I could tell by a few of the hands played, that my opponent here had some idea of how the game actually worked. So I tried to control the pot, while holding what I thought was a solid enough hand to take it down. Although his last stand pat did scare the crap out of me.

As was typical for the rest of the night, I ran crap, was dealt crap and more often than not if I folded crap, I would've hit the crap out of the flops. So my end came when I had nearly enough chips to play another ten minutes or so, and was dealt a RAZZ starter with two others interested. Get'em in and pray for the triple up or, go back to the bar and enjoy the rest of my night.

The band at the bar was hawt and the Scotch went down every bit as good if not better, than it would have while staring at my monitor and hoping for the magic to return.

I should learn to never get my hopes up about big games, it never works out like I plan it to.

Ces't le vie.

Oh and my "Bud." Well I finally figured out who it was and have to say thanks. (NOT for the chips on the suck out either!) Thanks for making an unbearable and painful night of cards, so much more fun than it could've been.

As I'm probably the only one that knows it's you, I'll do my bit to keep it to myself. I think you were really enjoying the secrecy behind the whole thing so, enjoy away!

Event #6 is NLHE and by my calculations, runs in less than two hours. Hope to see you there!